Tigers star's scheme to beat summer calories

Date: October 20 2013

Daniel Lane

Chris Lawrence is determined to start next year in the best possible shape.

Wests Tigers centre Chris Lawrence is so determined to start next year with a cutting edge he has maintained a calorie-killer training program while many of his teammates are spending their annual leave at sun-drenched locations to recover from a nightmare of a season.

Before the 24-year-old stopped counting he burnt 3000 calories in three gut-busting sessions at the beginning of the week in his new fitness studio at Five Dock in the inner west. The centre, who has played six Tests for Australia but blamed ''niggling'' injuries for destroying his 2013 campaign, sent his army of Twitter followers into a tailspin when one of his tweets contained a graph and stats showing he incinerated 1225 calories in 77 minutes' worth of weights and cardio exercise.

While he said he was in no danger of burning himself out during his break, he was determined to return to pre-season training ripped and ready to help the Tigers to improve upon a winter of discontent. Injuries to key players and form slumps left rookie NRL coach Michael Potter in the unenviable situation of needing to call upon young players who weren't ready for first grade.

''It was disappointing, a season I'd like to forget from an individual and team perspective,'' Lawrence said of a year in which the Wests Tigers finished second last on the ladder. ''It was one of those years … well, I've had a few injuries over the last couple of years but this was the most frustrating with injuries. [They were] just little niggly injuries that prevented me from not only being able to take the field at 100 per cent but [also] being able to train for most of the week. It was frustrating. Towards the back end of the year I was only doing one session on my legs a week and a few other guys were the same. The most frustrating thing about that was if there's things in your game that you need to work on - which a few of the blokes did and I did - is even though you want to get out there, we can't because if we put any more extra on our legs, we were going to make things worse.''

Lawrence said even though the Wests Tigers had lost some key players, including rugby recruit Benji Marshall, there was good reason for success-starved supporters to have faith in the younger players coming through the ranks.

''All the young players got more time [in first grade this season] than they would have thought and that's going to be hugely beneficial for their careers,'' he said.

''To see guys coming through like David Nofoaluma, those guys would've only got a few games without the injuries. There's going to be some great development with those players in the next few years.''

Lawrence, who is contracted to Wests until the end of 2015, had received widespread acclaim for his initiative to go to schools and corporations to explain the benefits of good health and nutrition in an easy-to-understand manner.

He recently opened his fitness studio, One Wellbeing, to conduct boot camps and personal training over summer in sessions that he said were based on what he'd learnt during his time as a top-grader in the NRL. Lawrence said one of the hardest things footballers endured during their break was curbing their appetites.

''During the footy season because of the amount of energy we burn we need to have the bigger portions,'' he said. ''We know we'll be burning the calories but over the four or six weeks we have off, when we're not burning 2000 calories in two training sessions a day, I go from eating a lot of food to really cutting back. It's hard and you find a lot of blokes struggle. They come back to the first day of pre-season and while they might not have been on the drink they struggle because they might not have adjusted their appetite to be in line with their less intense training sessions.''